Digital Humanities Questions & Answers » Topic: How did you learn to code?

Digital Humanities Questions & Answers » Topic: How did you learn to code? http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-did-you-learn-to-code Digital Humanities Questions & Answers » Topic: How did you learn to code? en-US Mon, 08 Feb 2016 08:42:55 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 <![CDATA[Search]]> q http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/search.php mweiss on "How did you learn to code?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-did-you-learn-to-code#post-2377 Sat, 06 Feb 2016 14:08:03 +0000 mweiss 2377@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ There may be application/programming clubs on your campus that can be a valuable resource to help you learn a concepts, navigate coding issues, and expand your network of knowledgeable programmers. As for resources.. here is a list our app club came up with during a meeting: Learn to code links: 1. <a href="http://www.codecademy.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.codecademy.com/</a> HTML & CSS Javascript jQuery Python Ruby PHP 2. <a href="http://www.codeavengers.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.codeavengers.com/</a> websites, apps, games 3. <a href="https://www.codeschool.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.codeschool.com</a> Angular.js SASS Rails jQuery Objective-C 4. <a href="https://www.udemy.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.udemy.com/</a> learn realworld skills - pay for courses 5. <a href="http://www.alice.org/index.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.alice.org/index.php</a> programming in 3d env. 6. <a href="https://www.makegameswith.us/home/" rel="nofollow">https://www.makegameswith.us/home/</a> make iOS games. some of it is free but leads to paid courses. demo environment. 7. <a href="http://codecombat.com/" rel="nofollow">http://codecombat.com/</a> learn code by gaming - 8. <a href="http://jsptut.com/" rel="nofollow">http://jsptut.com/</a> Back end resources jsp tutorial java's answer to asp 9. <a href="http://www.tutorialspoint.com/computer_programming_tutorials.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.tutorialspoint.com/computer_programming_tutorials.htm</a> high and low level programming tutorials Version Control 1. <a href="https://github.com/" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/</a> 2. <a href="https://subversion.apache.org/" rel="nofollow">https://subversion.apache.org/</a> mention of <a href="http://codeschool.com" rel="nofollow">http://codeschool.com</a> and code squah ( <a href="http://squash.io" rel="nofollow">http://squash.io</a> ? <a href="http://codesquash.wordpress.com/tag/php/" rel="nofollow">http://codesquash.wordpress.com/tag/php/</a> ?) Competitions 1. Jeroo. <a href="http://home.cc.gatech.edu/dorn/jeroo" rel="nofollow">http://home.cc.gatech.edu/dorn/jeroo</a> High school oop and java syntax 2. Grid world - (wikipedia) computer program case study written in Java for use with the AP Computer Science program. It serves as an example of object-oriented programming (OOP) <a href="http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/151155.html" rel="nofollow">http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/151155.html</a> 3. UIL competition (University Interscholastic League) <a href="http://www.uiltexas.org/academics/computer-science" rel="nofollow">http://www.uiltexas.org/academics/computer-science</a> ---- Other sites: 1. <a href="https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts" rel="nofollow">https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts</a> 15 min informationally dense screen casts about a number of programming topics. Destroyallsoftware.com with Gary Bernhardt for the Batman funny video “Wat.” 2. <a href="http://www.mybringback.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.mybringback.com/</a> very advert heavy but quick tutorials. popup blocker plugin reccomended for this website. 3. Obj.co did not get a link or description for this. 4. <a href="http://nshipster.com/" rel="nofollow">http://nshipster.com/</a> dovetail information about obj-c swift, cocoa Reference materials 1. Pearson books 2. Murach series 3. one I missed (maybe O'Reilly in Nutshell series?) 4. <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.sitepoint.com/</a> occasionally has good deals on subscription based e-books. 5. Stay away from "for dummies" 6. <a href="https://www.railstutorial.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.railstutorial.org/</a> web development with ruby on rails Framework/platforms: 1. <a href="http://ionicframework.com/" rel="nofollow">http://ionicframework.com/</a> hybrid mobile apps 2. .net <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/net" rel="nofollow">http://www.microsoft.com/net</a> and <a href="https://umbrella.codeplex.com/" rel="nofollow">https://umbrella.codeplex.com/</a> to fill in the gaps. 3. <a href="http://xamarin.com/" rel="nofollow">http://xamarin.com/</a> C# and Xamarin 4. Cordova - APIs that allow a mobile app developer to access native device function <a href="http://Cordova.apache.org" rel="nofollow">http://Cordova.apache.org</a> 5. <a href="http://bottlepy.org/docs/dev/index.html" rel="nofollow">http://bottlepy.org/docs/dev/index.html</a> micro web-framework for Python 6. <a href="http://flask.pocoo.org/" rel="nofollow">http://flask.pocoo.org/</a> python microframework based on werkzeug and Jinja 7. <a href="https://www.djangoproject.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.djangoproject.com/</a> web framework "for perfectionist" 8. <a href="http://www.pylonsproject.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.pylonsproject.org/</a> pylon community for the framework 9. <a href="http://www.cappuccino-project.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cappuccino-project.org/</a> web app framework obj-j 10. <a href="http://nodejs.org/" rel="nofollow">http://nodejs.org/</a> building scalable network apps 11. <a href="http://spring.io/" rel="nofollow">http://spring.io/</a> platform for JVM-based systems and applications ---- Other links mentioned Objective c. Core data programming - automated solutions to common tasks associated with object life-cycle and object graph management, including persistence <a href="https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/CoreData/cdProgrammingGuide.html" rel="nofollow">https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/CoreData/cdProgrammingGuide.html</a> <a href="https://angularjs.org/" rel="nofollow">https://angularjs.org/</a> <a href="http://www.pluralsight.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.pluralsight.com/</a> $29 dollar a month tech/creative library <a href="http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell" rel="nofollow">http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell</a> functional programming SaraJKerr on "How did you learn to code?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-did-you-learn-to-code#post-2376 Fri, 05 Feb 2016 17:38:16 +0000 SaraJKerr 2376@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Hi, I started my PhD last year and have been learning to code for it. My research is using R and I've taken a couple of online courses, I also found Matthew Jockers' book Text Analysis With R for Students of Literature helpful. There is a great online community for R with tutorials and how to videos, and Stack Exchage has been great for specific problems. With TEI practice is key, working or volunteering on a project which uses TEI really helps. I've helped on the Letters of 1916 project which uses TEI encoding. Anyone can log in and transcribe letters, the transcription desk uses a small number of tags which helps you become familiar with a few before moving onto more complex examples. LeahPowell on "How did you learn to code?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-did-you-learn-to-code#post-2374 Fri, 05 Feb 2016 12:41:19 +0000 LeahPowell 2374@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Wow, thank you all for the wonderful advice and resources. I am in a DH course at LSU right now, and I shared your responses with my classmates, who were also very happy for the practical tips. I have a network visualization project in mind, and I found beginning lessons on Programming Historian, so I might start there. If you are interested in what we're up to at LSU, we have a class website at <a href="http://engl7121s16.laurenacoats.org/" rel="nofollow">http://engl7121s16.laurenacoats.org/</a>, which includes our syllabus and weekly posts about our digital explorations. Thanks again! Amanda Visconti on "How did you learn to code?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-did-you-learn-to-code#post-2373 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 10:39:40 +0000 Amanda Visconti 2373@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Replying to @Amanda Visconti's <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-did-you-learn-to-code#post-2372">post</a>: As an add-on to Scott's #1: the Firebug extension (available for Firefox, can't remember if there's a Chrome version currently) is both a great way to learn about website HTML and CSS, and a fantastic tool to use everyday as a web designer. It lets you click on specific pieces of a webpage to see how they're coded, and it also lets you temporarily make changes to the webpage by playing with the existing HTML and CSS (e.g. you can visit the New York Times' webpage and alter its font type or color, change how articles are spaced, etc.). Sometimes taking an existing site and trying to alter it a bit is a good way of learning how it was built. Amanda Visconti on "How did you learn to code?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-did-you-learn-to-code#post-2372 Thu, 04 Feb 2016 06:56:21 +0000 Amanda Visconti 2372@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Replying to @<a href='/profile/leahpowell'>LeahPowell</a>'s <a href="http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-did-you-learn-to-code#post-2368">post</a>: Hi, Leah! You might be interested in reading this collection of "how I got started" stories from the participants at a recent symposium on DH development (the NEH-funded UVa Scholars' Lab's Speaking in Code): <a href="http://codespeak.scholarslab.org/starting/" rel="nofollow">http://codespeak.scholarslab.org/starting/</a> Some of these are more origin stories than steps to get started, but some might have some information that's useful (especially since the conference was focused on making tacit DH development knowledge more public). There's also a Digital Humanities Slack (an online chat forum with specific rooms for chatting about DH questions, coding, teaching DH, etc.) you're very welcome to join via <a href="http://www.TinyUrl.com/DHSlack" rel="nofollow">http://www.TinyUrl.com/DHSlack</a>. It's a good place to ask questions if any come up as you're coding—or if you want recommendations for tools to build on or programming languages to use. scottkleinman on "How did you learn to code?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-did-you-learn-to-code#post-2371 Wed, 03 Feb 2016 13:01:14 +0000 scottkleinman 2371@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Here are a couple of tips: 1. Begin by learning html and css to code your own website (there are plenty of online tutorials, including codeacademy.com). After you get the basics, decide what else you would like to do and then Google "How do I do _________ in html/css"? (You fill in the blank.) You'll find plenty of answers online. Get used to this Google procedure; it's the best way to learn. Look especially for answers on stackoverflow.com. 2. TEI is overwhelming, and most projects only use a tiny bit of the schema. So it is best to have a specific project which requires only a few elements that are easy to understand. Eventually, you'll come across a situation that is not so clear, and for this you'll have to start reading the TEI guidelines. One helpful tip I've found is to go to a definition of an element like <a href="http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/ref-unclear.html">unclear</a> in the index, scroll to the bottom to see an example, and then back to the top to click on the links to the chapter discussion. That's how I've gradually become much more familiar with how to apply the TEI Guidelines. Both of the above examples involve descriptive coding. If you want to learn programming, I suggest starting with Python, in part because I second The Programming Historian as a source of good tutorials. DARIAH-DE's <a href="https://de.dariah.eu/tatom/">Text Analysis with Topic Models</a> is another good set of tutorials, though you need to have some Python basics down first. <a href="http://learnpythonthehardway.org/book/">Learn Python the Hard Way</a> is (despite the name) a very good place to start. Another good language to learn is PHP, which is the basis for Wordpress. It may be the easiest language (along with Javascript) to extend the functionality of your websites. In all these cases, there is a wealth of code samples and discussion about how to do things on stackoverflow.com. Shawn on "How did you learn to code?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-did-you-learn-to-code#post-2370 Wed, 03 Feb 2016 10:29:37 +0000 Shawn 2370@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ Hi Leah - it helps to have a pretty good sense of what it is you want to be doing, I think. Otherwise, all of the tutorials one might follow quickly become too abstract. Some folks have found codeacademy.com very helpful; it might be more useful for you, to start, to look at some 'how did they make that?' videos or articles: <a href="http://miriamposner.com/blog/how-did-they-make-that-the-video/" rel="nofollow">http://miriamposner.com/blog/how-did-they-make-that-the-video/</a> and <a href="http://dhcommons.org/journal/issue-1" rel="nofollow">http://dhcommons.org/journal/issue-1</a> The Programming Historian has lots of great stuff, and we're setting up a kind of community work-through-the-tutorials-and-annotate-them-where-things-get-tricksy (see <a href="http://literaturegeek.com/2016/02/02/DHannotates" rel="nofollow">http://literaturegeek.com/2016/02/02/DHannotates</a> ). Depending on where you're starting from, you might also find things like workbook.craftingdigitalhistory.ca or themacroscope.org helpful (things I've written for my own class). LeahPowell on "How did you learn to code?" http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/topic/how-did-you-learn-to-code#post-2368 Wed, 03 Feb 2016 09:52:28 +0000 LeahPowell 2368@http://digitalhumanities.org/answers/ I'm a PhD in English student, and I'm interested in (but very new to) DH. I will start working with TEI soon through a digital archive project I'm working on, so there's that. What other avenues should I explore in my quest to learn coding for the sake of DH research?